This week, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Integrity Staffing Solutions, Inc. v. Busk that employees working warehouse jobs at Amazon were not to be paid overtime for post-shift wait lines that sometimes reached 25 minute delays.

Two workers, who filed the class action, alleged they were forced to wait through excessive security check lines following their shifts. The workers contended they should have been compensated for their time spent during these lines. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the employees before The Supreme Court reversed. The Court reasoned the security screenings were not “integral” to their jobs as employees primarily hired to pack and ship products to Amazon customers; the employees were not hired to walk through security lines.

This logic is distinguished from previous Supreme Court rulings where certain pre/post-shift activities were deemed compensable. These have included time battery-plant employees spent showering and changing clothes because the chemicals in the plant were “toxic to human beings” [1] and time meatpacker employees spent sharpening their knives because dull knives would “slow down production” on the assembly line, “affect the appearance of the meat as well as the quality of the hides,” “cause waste,” and lead to “accidents.”[2]

The decision is a major loss for wage and hour advocates who believe in principal that all workers should be paid for their time from the moment they are required to be at work. Although the decision was unanimous and now current law, this is not likely the end of pre/post-shift litigation. Employers such as Amazon, armed with this new Supreme Court decision, might be even more emboldened to reduce security screening staffing, reducing costs, and increasing worker lines.